Marketing 101

Everyone in town knows where the church is - but every Sunday the church still rings its bell.

Marketing 101 - "Weasel" words

Whether you're a marketing services provider or a consumer you need to be aware of the use of "weasel" words in advertising and marketing verbiage.

Weasel words, or phrases, are used in marketing/advertising in order to avoid making a direct statement or promise. I.e. they are used as a way to say something that legally, or truthfully, cannot be said. They're also used to make you think you've heard something that hasn't actually been said, to accept as truth something which has only been implied, and believe things that have only been suggested.

A short guide to marketing and advertising "weasel" words.

Sale - Often used in newspaper advertising flyers and at point of purchase in the store. "Sale" or "sale price" is intended to make you think that the product's price has been discounted. But in reality, unless the original price is also displayed, "sale" simply means that this is the normal price that the product sells for.

Help - Often used with health and beauty products e.g. "Helps prevent cavities" "Helps make wrinkles disappear." The word "help" simply means "assist" and nothing more. No advertiser can say: "Our product makes wrinkles disappear" so instead they qualify it with "help" and can say: "Our product helps make wrinkles disappear." Our minds skip over the qualifier "help" and just hears "makes wrinkles disappear."

"Helps prevent..."
"Helps fight...."
"Helps you look..."

Like - "Like" is a qualifier that has a comparative element to it. It is used to stop the consumer from looking at the actual product being sold and instead start thinking about something that is bigger, better, or different.

"It's like getting another one free."
"It's like a vacation in Hawaii."
"Cleans like a white tornado."

"Like" is intended to make you believe that the product or service is more than it actually is by likening it to something else.

Virtual/virtually - This word just means "in essence" or "in effect," but not in actual fact.

"Virtually never needs service"
"Virtually the same as"
"Virtually handmade"

"Virtually" is interpreted by most people as meaning "almost or the same as...." But it really means "not in actual fact" so, for example, "Virtually never needs service" really means that it actually needs service.

Can be/may be - E.g. "Brand X can be of help in reducing cavities" or Brand Y may be effective in your weight loss program." Can be/may be is basically saying that the advertiser doesn't know if their product does anything.

Up to - This is used to imply an ideal situation but actually qualifies it. E.g. "Up to 50% off our regular prices." Well that could mean that discounts range anywhere from 0% to 50% - but they've got you in the store looking for all those 50% discounts.

As much as - E.g. "You'll reduce your ink consumption by as much as 28%." See "Up to."

Feel - This word expresses a subjective opinion. E.g. "This fabric feels like the finest silk." "Feels" like in this example is the advertiser's opinion of their product. Counter "feels" by completing the thought - "This fabric feels like the finest silk - but it isn't."

Free - Rarely is anything actually free. Free usually just means that it is included in the total price rather than listed as a separate item.

The Wayback View - German printshop advertising - circa 1926

German culture is noted (outside of Germany) for its engineering excellence and its lack of humor. These examples of printshop advertising posters fall into another category - graphic design excellence.

(My very rough translations)

Good print advertising and offset book printing.

Rough poster prints
The offset printing chosen by professionals. Offset papers and cartons.
Imitated but not equalled.

If your advertising needs are putting on the squeeze - we can help.

Aurasma - Augmented reality that might replace QR codes?

After becoming very popular in Asia and Europe, QR codes are just beginning to gain popularity in North America (for more on QR codes click HERE). However a new technology that recognizes images captured by a smart phone or tablet device can do many of the things QR codes can do - without the QR code itself. In this report by the BBC note how the Aurasma technology brings printed materials to life.

A report from the BBC on the Aurasma technology, a 15 second ad precedes the 2 minute video.

A demonstration of Blippar augmented reality which also uses image recognition to bring interactivity to print.
Of course walking around holding out your smart phone as demonstrated in the video may not be a smart idea in some cities.

The Wayback View – 1984, Newsweek - Apple's Advertising Coup

Recently the US celebrated two major events - the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan and the 45th Superbowl football game.

While many people are aware of Apple's historic "1984" Superbowl commercial (spoofed by Motorola's Xoom introduction ad in this year's Superbowl) that introduced the Macintosh computer, few are aware that Apple achieved another advertising coup that same year. In the fall of 1984, Apple purchased all of the advertising space in Newsweek magazine's special edition commemorating Ronald Reagan's landslide win of a second term as President. This was the first, and possibly only time that an advertiser has purchased all the advertising space in a magazine.

Below, for the record, are all the ads from that historic Newsweek issue.

Click on images to enlarge

QR Codes (2D Matrix Codes) - Reality check

If you're like most people in North America, you probably won't know what the above image represents, even though it is the latest craze being promoted to print service providers and marketeers.

"Matrix Codes," most popularly known as QR or Quick Response codes are essentially bar codes like the ones printed on package goods that are scanned at the merchant's checkout counter. QR codes take the notion a step further because they enable print media and web-enabled mobile media to work together. A QR code is a high-density barcode readable by smart cell phones and simple PC cams. By pointing the camera at the QR symbol, an application on the phone, or PC, opens the individual’s mobile browser and instantly connects them to a designated Web page without them ever having to type in a URL or promotional code - they just point and go. By scanning the codes, one can not only access websites but images, personal information, make phone calls, play a video, and send text messages.

QR codes are already a big part of mobile culture in Japan (where the technology originated in 1994) and South Korea with some 40% of mobile users in Japan regularly using their mobile phones to scan QR codes in advertisements.The marketing opportunities enabled by QR codes are limitless.

Advertisers, publishers and brand owners can use QR codes to add interactivity to any print media. In Asia (and slowly in the rest of the world) they are being placed on just about everything you could imagine - and some you wouldn't think of, like tattoos and gravestones.

QR codes explained in a clip from the television show CSI: New York.
Here are just a few examples of where you can find QR codes being used today:

• Business cards
• Outdoor posters and signage
• Packaging
• Clothing
• Newspapers and magazines
• Point of purchase displays
• Event registration

The reality check - at least for North American marketeers

While there seems to be a great deal of enthusiasm for the potential applications of QR codes, the state of the technology in North America is akin to the state of the internet for people who don't have a computer, or who do have a computer but have no ISP access. Sure the technology is great, however, from a marketing point of view, you've got to be realistic about your audience.

Today, with QR codes, you're only broadcasting to a small minority of the market:

1) They must have a smart phone or a phone for which QR reader applications are available - not just a phone with a camera. Right away that eliminates some 75% of the cell phone using audience.

2) They must be aware of the significance and value of QR codes. Try asking the technophiles at any cell phone kiosk to see if they have any idea what a QR code is. So ignorance going to remove, IMHO, at least 90% of the 35% of the market that have smart phones. So now you're down to maybe 3% of the market

3) They must download and install the QR software. That's work which many people shy away from. So maybe that cuts out another 50% of the market. So now you are down to maybe 1-2% of the market being able to use QR codes.

4) From a marketing perspective, you have to ask what percentage of that 1-2% of the total market is made up of your target audience (e.g. print specifiers)? 1%, 10%, 50%? I doubt that it's even as much as 1%.

Using a message delivery system that, at best, is accessible by only 1-2% of the total market and likely .001% of a given target market is not a message delivery system that I would count on to deliver a measurable, let alone significant, marketing ROI.

So, use and promote QR codes - but don't expect them to deliver an ROI as an effective marketing/promotional media. At least not today. However, once QR readers are pre-installed on smart phones and the major brands bring more attention to the technology QR coding will rapidly move from hype to "must have."Fortunately, the cost of entry is zero. You can create your own QR Code for any website, short text message, or other information using any one of the free online code generators like the one available HERE.

The Pantone Hotel - a bold new color space

Pantone, the international brand best known for its spot color palettes, has opened a hotel located in the heart of Brussels just a 5-minute walk from the fashionable Avenue Louise and Metro Louise.
Designed by Belgian interior designer Michel Penneman and Belgian architect Olivier Hannaert, the Pantone Hotel is a boutique property housing 59 austere guest rooms which are described as "works of art" by Pantone.Each of the hotel’s seven floors are schemed with different color palettes to complement guests’ emotions with distinctive hues – from "earth, rich" to "cheerful, warm," "captivating, esteemed, silky" or "fresh, eager.The cost of a night's stay is about the same as the cost for one of the company's color swatchbook guides.

The hotel also offers the Pantone Lounge, which offers cocktails suited to guests' moods, such as Pink Champagne PANTONE 12-1107, Lemon Drop PANTONE 12-0736 or Daiquiri Green PANTONE 12-0435.
PANTONE Color consultants are also available by appointment for informal color consultations or to present educational seminars on color psychology and trends.

The Pantone hotel follows the company's move into other branded merchandise such as mugs and clothing and includes amenities from the collection and the largest selection of Pantone products worldwide.
More information about the Pantone hotel can be found HERE.

Mass customization for print production

Print production is most cost-effective when it is standardized. However a standardized production process doesn’t allow the flexibility to meet unique customer needs since tuning production for each customer quickly increases costs. The solution to this dilemma lies in the manufacturing philosophy of "mass customization."

Mass customization combines the efficiencies of mass production with the flexibility of custom manufacturing and is based on the notion of customizing what’s visible and standardizing what’s invisible to the customer. For example, in the automobile manufacturing industry – Volkswagen, with only four standard platforms, manufactures over 30 different vehicles. Amazingly, the Volkswagen Beetle and Audi TT sit on the same chassis as the Volkswagen Jetta, Golf, Audi A3, Skoda, and SEAT offerings in Europe. The secret is that the parts the customer doesn’t see are standard across the different car models but the parts that the customer sees are unique to each model. Translated into printing terms, this means the printer standardizes on the few, key, presswork characteristics that provide maximum visible customization from the print-buyer perspective. These characteristics are then pre-tested and integrated into the production workflow. When the sales representative discusses the project with the client, one of the standardized (to the printer) packages can then be offered as an alternative “custom-tailored” solution for the buyer.

The key to success is in developing, pre-testing, and standardizing options rather than waiting for a specific customer request or experimenting on live jobs.

Here are just a few thought-starters for the kinds of standards that can be established within a multiple-standards print shop to customize presswork to better meet individual print buyer's needs:

1) 175 lpi GRACoL7. Standard commodity presswork.
2) 175 lpi at Dmaxx. This is presswork run at higher-than-standards solid ink densities (about 30+ points) in order to provide more saturated color.
3) FM/stochastic screening to provide near-contone fidelity and photographic detail.
4) C(2M)YK. This is CMYK with an alternate magenta ink hue. Changing the Magenta ink between two different hues allows favoring intense reds and oranges or blues and purples.
5) Hi-Fi via a ink set that uses more than the four process colors in order to expand the color gamut for better image fidelity or to replace spot colors through more effective screen tint builds.

What makes them so special?

Is there a printer that you think is doing an outstanding job? Even though they may be a competitor? Why not find out what makes them so special? Since it’s not unusual for printers to subcontract presswork to cover peaks in demand, or to deliver specialty presswork, why not subcontract to the printer you admire? Even if they come in at a higher price than you would have charged, the experience gained by studying their processes might inspire you to discover new ways to make your own business something special.

A "Marketing Services Provider" approach to print sales

True sales professionals establish and develop their skills to manage a complex sales scenario. They typically enter a buying culture that positions print as an undifferentiated commodity. As a result, the sales professional must use their ability to collect customer and job data, uncover broader business issues, develop solutions from their expert standpoint, and then develop the strategies required to align the printer’s production system to deliver the appropriate solution. Sales must also endeavor to make buyers realize their payback – the value proposition – they derive from the printer’s uniqueness. This allows Sales to sell more of the value of their solution, which in turn will give the print buyer more effective print communication pieces while helping the printer maintain their margins along the way. As this process develops over time, the sales person gets to know the account intimately and learns how to shape the printer’s solutions so that they evolve with the print buyer’s needs and always form the right fit. When Sales only has one print solution or standard, it makes it hard to tailor it to meet customer needs. One print-production method and presswork standard, SWOP or GRACoL for example, may save time and cost in the cases when just that solution fits the customer’s needs just right, but otherwise it may push the sales person and the printer further into a commodity position where price is the sole differentiator.

Reflect the customers you want to retain

The environment we create, personal or business, home or office, is a reflection of our preferences, attitudes, and capabilities. In order to enter new markets, attract new customer prospects, or help retain existing customers, pay a visit to their offices to see the environment they work within. Then take a critical look at your buildings, offices, reception area, washrooms – all the areas of your business that customers will see. The better your facilities mirror your prospect’s environment the more comfortable they will feel that they're "in the right place" with people who understand their unique needs and, as a result, the greater opportunity you will have of becoming their preferred supplier.

The Wayback View – The birth of a Mad Man - 1957

The birth of an advertising man is revealed in this poignant 1.34 second video as "Ted" goes to the big city in order to move up the ladder as a professional in the American social class system.Preview images from the video
Please press the play arrow to view the video. Note that it may stop for a moment while the video buffers in the background.